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Biomedical subjects

R Fernández-Ballesteros

Publications and source records attributed to R Fernández-Ballesteros.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Training of conversational skills with institutionalized elderly: a preliminary study.

16 residents in a Residential Care Home for elderly people volunteered and were trained in a social skills program aimed at increasing conversational skills. Subjects were assigned randomly to three groups, one experimental and two control groups (placebo and waiting list). The techniques used in the experimental group were behavior rehearsal, feedback, modeling, discriminative reinforcement, verbal instructions, and homework. Relative to control groups, experimental subjects showed significant increases in conversational skills, such as receiving information, speaking-up, and giving information. They also showed a significant decrease in their scores on Zung's Self-rating Scale of Depression compared with the two control groups. They showed an increase in assertive responses and a decrease in aggressive and inhibited responses. These changes remained when follow-up was made 3 mo. later, suggesting the potential utility of this training program with elderly persons residing in old people's homes.

Aged

The role of perceptual laws in the Rorschach test.

The purpose of this study is twofold: to ascertain the perceptual deficits in schizophrenic subjects and to test the assumption that the Rorschach is mainly a perceptual task. Forty-eight subjects participated in the study, distributed in six groups of eight subjects each: normals, affective disorders, and four groups of schizophrenics (chronic paranoid, chronic nonparanoid, acute paranoid, and acute nonparanoid). They were given a perceptual test developed by Fernández-Trespalacios, Bermudez, and Luna (1979). Contrary to previous findings, no differences in the perceptual test were found among the groups. In the second part of the study, a group of schizophrenic subjects was given the Rorschach and the perceptual test in a balanced order. Subsequently, subjects in the experimental group were trained in the perceptual laws they had failed. Comparison of the Rorschach protocols obtained before and after this training failed to show any significant differences in the expected direction, thus questioning the perceptual nature of this test. Interestingly, an increase in negative categories of the Rorschach subsequent to the perceptual training was observed.

Acute Disease

Duration of exposure of Rorschach stimuli.

In this study we assessed the influence of duration of exposure of the Rorschach stimuli on the response determinants when the information processing is interrupted using a patterned mask or visual noise. Analysis shows that increasing duration of exposure does not yield a parallel increase in the production of more structured responses. These results are discussed in light of the familiarity of the forms and of the distribution of physical energy or luminance present in the stimulus.

Adolescent

Response selection on the Rorschach Test.

After discussion of some theoretical speculations concerning the nature of the Rorschach process, two experimental manipulations of the Rorschach task are presented. Three groups of normal (n = 6) and schizophrenic subjects (7 paranoid and 7 nonparanoid) participated. Their mean age was 30.7 yr. In the first experimental version of the Rorschach, simplified inkblots (sections of the standard cards) were used to verify the influence of stimulus complexity on response for the three groups. In the second, an experimental version of the Rorschach task was created to highlight the influence of the selection process among different associations to blots. To this end, a list including responses both of positive and negative form quality to each card, was provided each subject. Data are discussed, highlighting the minimal differences obtained by the experimental manipulations and relating these to theoretical speculations.

Adult

Tactile perceptual task and field dependence-independence.

Differential performance with both hands by 60 normal field-dependent or field-independent subjects who were solving Nebes' test, was assessed. No difference was found between hands, but a significant difference was noted for speed of performance between field-dependent and field-independent subjects.

Adolescent